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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

I've kind of already been on a blogging break for about a month but I figure I'll make it official now. It's just really crazy with school and soccer and life. I haven't had much time to read and I don't have time/feel like writing reviews and putting up posts.

To publishers that I owe reviews to, I'm very sorry, but I'll have the reviews up eventually for sure.

I'll probably be back around the second week in December. See ya then!

It happened on Halloween.
The world ended.
And a dangerous Game brought it back to life.
Seventeen-year-old Michael and his five-year-old brother,
Patrick, have been battling monsters in The Game for weeks.
In the rural mountains of West Virginia, armed with only their rifle
and their love for each other, the brothers follow Instructions from the
mysterious Game Master. They spend their days searching for survivors, their
nights fighting endless hordes of “Bellows”—creatures that roam the dark,
roaring for flesh. And at this Game, Michael and Patrick are very good.
But The Game is changing.
The Bellows are evolving.
The Game Master is leading Michael and Patrick to other
survivors—survivors who don’t play by the rules.
And the brothers will never be the same.

Bio:

T. Michael Martin is a novelist and screenwriter who holds
a B.F.A. in Filmmaking from University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He
was inspired to write his debut novel, The End Games (Balzer + Bray
2013), by his own younger brother, Patrick, and their shared love of zombie
movies. He currently lives with his wife in West Virginia.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought
her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter
inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters
suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be
completely rewritten.

As a complete book, it isn’t hard to find the right word to describe this story: phenomenal. But it is hard to describe the little details that made this book phenomenal. But I’ll try. The writing, I have to mention right off, was beautiful. John Green is an amazing writer, and you immediately get sucked into any of his books. The whole story was just beautiful, if not heartbreaking. I loved the way the romance grew, I loved the way that Hazel and Augustus talked to each other, I loved the way they made jokes and talked about the universe and had intelligent conversations. I just loved the book. It’s those little things that made this book as amazing as it was. And, even though I spent literally thirty minutes, while I was reading, sobbing, actually sobbing, this book was amazing. The way the romance grew, and the way the story line flowed and made the book an adventure for Augustus and Hazel was just beautiful. And heartbreaking.

These characters were the reason I loved this book. Even though cancer had ruined both of their lives, they remained strong. Augustus was awesome. He was so funny and adorable and cute and smart and loving and caring…and gosh just perfect. The way he treated Hazel and the way they really loved each other was so beautiful to read about. Hazel was a great main character because she was actually more affected by cancer than he was, in my opinion. She remained strong and defiant and she was a really intelligent main character. The ending of this book killed me.

At times I actually found it very hard to write this review because I was thinking of the book and all that happened in it and I know it sounds so cheesy but I almost started to cry several times. It took me a while to write this review, and I don’t think it does the book justice, but I hope I got across how amazing I thought it was. I’m actually kind of dreading the movie coming out because I think seeing this book will be worse than reading it, emotion wise.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Before: Miles
"Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his
obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great
Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the
sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek
Boarding School, and his
life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The
gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly
fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into
her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.
After: Nothing is
ever the same.

This was the first book by John Green that I’ve ever read,
and I wasn’t sure what to expect…but it definitely wasn’t what happened in this
book! This book was dark, entertaining,
emotionally scarring…and kind of awesome.
First off, John Green’s writing is absolutely beautiful. The way he described the characters and the
setting was just amazing, and the story line flowed perfectly. I honestly thought I had this whole book figured
out, and I thought I knew how it would end…but I was so wrong. So, so, so wrong. I couldn’t believe that ending. [SPOILER:When he was counting down the numbers till some day the whole book I was
expecting it to be when Pudge would tell Alaska
that he loved her, not when she would die.
That completely threw me, and gosh it was sad. ]

This book has some really awesome characters. One thing that I think YA lacks is really
flawed, messed up characters. Like in Silver
Linings Playbook, Pat and Tiffany are so messed up, but they’re two of
my all-time favorite characters. This book
had some really messed up characters, and it was hard to read about them, but I
enjoyed it, if that makes sense. Pudge
was a good main character, and he really developed over the course of the
story, turning from a weak, anti-social loner to a stronger, has-3-best-friends
kind of guy. Alaska I really liked. She was strong, she was confident…but she was
also crazy, and even though I thought that, I really appreciated her as a
character. The Colonel was a big part of
the book as well, and I really loved his character. He was a good, strong supporting character
who had his own issues, and made the book very interesting.

I was very impressed with this book, and I know that John
Green is a very popular author, so I will definitely be reading his other books. But seriously, if all his book are as
heartbreaking as this one…I’m going to need some therapy.

The New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments
continues—and so do the thrills and danger for Jace, Clary, and Simon.
What price is too high to pay, even for love? When Jace and
Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic
has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that
Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but
there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. As Alec, Magnus,
Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless
Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. The
price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do
anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?
Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. Darkness threatens to claim
the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.

This series just keeps adding to
itself. At this point, the world is so well explained and the story
is so complex that you really have to concentrate to pick up
everything. And this book added so much to the series. A lot of
crap went down in this book, and it was absolutely crazy. After the
ending of the last book, one big thing had to be fixed or else I was
going to throw this book across the room and cry forever (those of
you who have read this series know what I'm talking about). And,
thankfully, it was all fixed. So great. The writing was, as usual,
pretty good. However, I did get kind of annoyed with all the
different romances going on, and when Clare would switch points of
view and go to Jordan and Maia, who basically had nothing to do with
the story. The story line, staging, and explanations for the events
were all very well done and very well explained. And omg that
ending! Gosh I felt like I couldn't breath as I was reading it.
Also, I will forever remember this book because of the last lines of
the last page. Best finish ever.

As you all may or may not know, Jace is
my fictional boyfriend. I don't care what you say or who tries to
take him away from me, he's mine. He's a smart-ass, blond god who
has a great personality and is totally full of himself. Plus he's
sexy and kick-ass. So I've come to the conclusion that if I can't
find a blonde Shadowhunter sometime in my life that I am going to die
alone. Thank you Jace for ruining my life. Clary keeps on growing
on my as the series goes on. Even though she made some really stupid
decisions in this book, I really like her strength, drive, and
personality.

I can't wait for the last book.
Seriously, WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN! Ugh the suspense is killing
me!!